Tablets for Business

SHAILAon December 19, 2012

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Freedom and flexibility to move around and compute from any place can be possible only with a tablet in hand. If you are looking for one for your small business needs, then here’s help from Edward C Baig. In his article in USA Today. He gives a quick review of tablet computers that are ideal for business uses.

Apple’s iPad

Light weight, thin, with a 9.7 inch, 3.1 million pixel retina display, Apple’s iPad has a long battery life extending to 10 hours. Once viewed as a play device, it can now make a serious business tool, after the long forays made by Apple in promoting it as a tablet for enterprises.

Its slew of great business apps makes it possible to capture digital signatures, use it for communication and for computer aided designs.

Through the Volume Purchase Program, you gain access to thousands of world-class apps designed to offer a broad spectrum of solutions for your business. Not only this, you can also get customised B2B apps developed by third-party developers to suit your unique requirements.

It operates on the stable iOS which gives you an instant access to necessary information.

Enables you to setup Mobicip’s browser app which helps you allow/block categories of websites leading to a more productive workforce.

Despite these pros that speak in iPad’s favor, many find it difficult to use a touch screen for business. Though it’s easy to access e-mails, documents and spreadsheets on a tablet rather than on a phone, it’s difficult to edit and export long documents. In short you can be a content consumer on your iPad and not a content creator.

We recommend you to read TIME Magazine’s editor-at-large, Harry McCracken’s, list of 30 Apple apps for your business, to think decisively.

Windows 8 Convertibles

You can use it as a tablet that relies on your fingers for navigation, or as a laptop, depending on a keyboard and a mouse.

Lenovo Yoga13

Window 8 hybrid, through a 360 degree hinge can convert to a laptop or a tablet. Though laptop virtues are present, it turns clumsy as a tablet. Heavier at 3.4 pounds, it has a 13.3 inch screen with a resolution of 1600x900. If a convertible laptop is what you are looking for, this could be your choice.

Microsoft Surface

You can also consider this if you are willing to spend another $100 to get a keyboard accessory. But, there’s a little confusion here. First, Surface tablets function on Windows RT that relies on ARM processors, providing long battery life, multi touch versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but run short on apps.

Windows 8 Pro version of Surface, with a high resolution display of 1920x1080, detachable keyboard, cost unknown and a smaller screen size of 10.6 inches is due this January. Whichever option you go with, remember that you’ll need time to get accustomed to the interface as Windows 8 is a departure from traditional Windows we have used for long.